Avraham Goldberg was a “peace-loving” and “tolerant” grandfather, his family has said.

“Apparently he was the first one they shot at,” his cousin, Michelle Hirschfield, told The Independent. “These kids that killed him were working in the local grocery shop down the road; they had jobs there,” she claimed.

The bodies of her 68-year-old cousin and the other three shot dead are said to have been “hacked to pieces with knives and hatchets,” she said.

It is an “extremely upsetting” time for the family. “I’ve obviously been shaken, very shaken.”

Ms Hirschfield, a 63-year-old lawyer from London, said: “We were brought up in Liverpool together. He was an only child and I’m one of five children, and he was like our surrogate brother.”

The father of six lived in Golders Green, London with his wife Bryna, who worked as a teacher, for many years. The family left Britain to live in Israel “about 18 years ago”, according to Ms Hirschfield.

Her cousin “was a well-learned man, a peace- loving person, very educated; the sort of person whose philosophy in life was everybody does what they want to do. He was very tolerant.”

She added: “He has six children [five daughters and a son]. Three are married. He’s got grandchildren. Two grandchildren were married recently.”

The Goldberg family “are very upstanding members of the British community”, and Mr Goldberg’s uncle was known as “the angel of medicine” in Liverpool.

“He would go round on a Saturday with his medical bag and a bucket of coal to all these poor people in these Coronation Street type houses. He would take them food because he knew they were ill because they were cold and they didn’t have heating. He was a legend in Liverpool – and that’s the sort of family he came from,” commented Ms Hirschfield.

Her cousin took a keen interest in current affairs. “He was online every morning, read all the British newspapers. He would tell me what was in them before I’d even read them,” she said.

And she recalled how they had discussed the recent problems in Gaza. “He just felt ‘what is it coming to? How can people be so radicalised? How can life be reduced to people wanting to be martyrs, killing other people?’”

Ms Hirschfield recognised the synagogue on the news as she had dropped him off there during a visit to Israel six months ago. “I immediately texted him because I knew he’d go to the synagogue in the morning.”

She added: “I then rang my sister, who lives in Israel. She had tried to get in touch with him and couldn’t. She then rang the house and spoke to the son who said ‘dad’s not answering the mobile, mummy’s gone down to the synagogue’.”

Her sister then “rang up the hospitals in Jerusalem to find out if he’d been admitted and got nowhere.”

The bloody scene of the deadly attack (GPO/Getty)
Hours later, they learned he was dead. Thousands attended a funeral for Mr Goldberg, and two of the other victims, Aryeh Kupinsky and Cary William Levine, in Jerusalem today.

Mr Goldberg “would only want justice to be done” according to his cousin. “I don’t think he would say ‘go out and shoot them all’.”

She added: “Arabs and Jews throughout Israel live side by side, especially in Jerusalem. The ordinary person only wants to get on with each other. I just feel that people think we can’t live side by side – that’s not true – we can.”